These are the first 51,481 doses of Pfizer the country will receive thanks to this international program, which is aimed at non-health workers.
El Salvador this morning received a shipment of 51,480 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, the first from that laboratory to arrive in the country through the COVAX mechanism, as confirmed by the Minister of Health, Francisco Alabí, who, along with other government agencies, is representatives of the diplomatic corps. and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) monitored arrivals at the international airport.
“For the first time, a batch of Pfizer vaccines has arrived in our country. A vaccine that must be frozen in an ultra-low manner, ”said the Minister of Health.
Ahead of the event, Minister Alabí said in the Front-to-Front interview on Monday morning that these are for frontline non-health workers, including teachers, the armed forces, the National Civil Police (PNC), Civil Defense and the Fire Brigade.
The official indicated in the interview that the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination plan could begin at the end of April, including adults over the age of 50 and those with chronic illnesses.
This is the second batch of vaccines donated by COVAX to receive the country and the first to be manufactured by Pfizer since the first batch according to this mechanism arrived on March 11, containing 33,600 doses from the AstraZeneca laboratory.
Until Sunday afternoon, the government specified neither the quantity nor the pharmaceutical company to which the vaccines belonged. However, a PAHO publication indicated it was a shipment of 51,481 doses manufactured by Pfizer.
At noon on Sunday, Minister Alabí avoided responding to journalists about the arrival of the new shipment, but a few hours later the government called the press for 9:00 a.m. this Monday to see that they were arriving from the donation.
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“We know there are quite a few takeover modalities, one of which is the global takeover, we hope that in the coming days we can have the joy of more batches of vaccines coming into the country,” the official said in response to questions from journalists. during the press conference where it was announced that 4,004 people have received medical discharge from El Salvador hospital after overcoming COVID-19.
“Today we give 4,004 discharges from this hospital and what a joy there are more than 4,000 families thanks to the efforts of health workers and all the professionals who work in this hospital 24 hours a day of the week,” said Francisco Alabí, Minister of Health.
According to the data provided, up to March 21 there were more than 1,655 female patients and more than 2,393 male patients, only this Sunday there were 8 discharges between 33 and 81 days old.
Of the patients, the one who received medical care for the virus the longest, was hospitalized for two and a half months, remained on noninvasive mechanical ventilation, but managed to recover, the official said.
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However, Alabí stresses that even though a person has already recovered, they must continue with biosecurity measures and assure that they continue to conduct tests as a ministry.
“We recently ran more than 20,000 tests in San Salvador alone to realize it is one of the most populated areas and the data shows us that the cases are continuing to decline. The latest of the reports is from 156 cases, slightly higher than what we have observed, but always in trend, ”said the minister.
According to the data provided, the Department of Health is dealing with some 63,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the trend continues to decline.
The minister also called on the population not to ignore the measures now that a holiday period is approaching, since the virus has not disappeared.
According to Alabí, the number of doses vaccinated reaches 49,079 doses and it is assured that according to the observation of health professionals, vaccinated people showed no adverse symptoms.
When the first batch of donated vaccines arrived, Secretary Alabí said that with the batch received, more than 53,000 frontline workers would have access to the administration of the first dose, of the more than 120,000 government employees scheduled to be vaccinated.
On that occasion, he also noted that a second batch of vaccines from the COVAX program of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer-BionTech was expected over a period of approximately 15 days.
In addition, ahead of the next start of mixed classes, starting April 6, the government has pledged to speed up and prioritize teacher vaccination, which it says will take place in late March and early April.
The COVAX initiative will distribute vaccine doses for free to 140 countries around the world, including 18 Latin American countries.